The present invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for analyzing and/or optimizing a design and more particularly, to a probabilistic based software based system which may be used to selectively analyze the overall reliability, robustness, and other features and/or characteristics of a design which is created by and/or which is based upon a computer aided design type model, effective to allow for the production of an item having desirable features and characteristics.
Traditional design techniques require the creation of one or more physical prototypes of an item or element which is to be produced. The prototypes are then subjected to a variety of tests. Further, various changes are made to the prototypes and/or new prototypes are created as a result of these tests and these changes or modifications are tested in order to allow for the production of a final product which has desirable characteristics and features (e.g., a relatively high reliability).
While these traditional design techniques or methods are effective, they are relatively costly and time consuming. One attempt at improving upon these drawbacks of these traditional design techniques utilizes a computer generated or computer aided design “CAD” model which simulates the item or product which is to be created and which represents and/or comprises a certain design of the item or product. The computer system may be used to perform various tests and/or modifications upon the model or design, thereby allowing a user to determine the desirability of the design.
While this approach does reduce the amount of time required for testing, it does not reliably assess the operation of the item or product in a “real operational setting” since this approach does not account for variations or dynamic changes occurring in the values of the various variables used to model the item or product which commonly occur in a “real operational setting”. This deterministic approach therefore does not allow a product or item to be analyzed in a “real world” situation and does not reliably allow for the production of an item having desired characteristics and/or attributes.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved system which allows computer type models to be created of an item or product and which further allows these computer type models to be analyzed and tested in an environment which substantially simulates the “real operational environment” into which the produced item or product is to be operationally placed, thereby allowing for the creation of an item or product having a relatively high reliability, robustness and various other features and/or characteristics.